Menu

A very late Christmas post

Well there are only 3 more sleeps and it is Christmas .. amazing! And where did that year go?
I’m sitting at the airport, enjoying a glass of bubbles while we are waiting for our plane to Melbourne.

But hey all that aside … what is happening in the garden?

Well of course my gorgeous raised beds have absolutely no idea that it is Christmas and nor do those nasties that are growing in numbers getting ready for the massive summer assault. Pests .. but more on them in another post.

Garden madness …

Our friend Geoff who is a God send .. erected our bean trellis yesterday which is actually made out of steel mesh. It is approximately 7ft high and runs the length of the bed. It is wired onto warratah metal stakes which have been hammered into the ground hopefully this structure won’t be going anywhere! So on Friday, we poked a variety of homegrown heirloom runner beans into the soil … Painted Lady, Scarlett Runner and Purple King. At last they are out of their tiny restrictive pots and in the ground. Yay!

Those beans in the ground at last ..

Of course … before every planting there are jobs to do. In this case it was remove 90% of the garlic from the bed, hoist out the array of self seeded plants, calendula, forget-me-not, nasturtium the odd spud and lots of lemon balm that has gone mad. The latter is in the mint family, and similar to good old house mint, this plant can be very invasive. I love this plant, makes a super tea which is quite ‘calming’, but find now that it is trying to grow everywhere … literally!

Garlic …gorgeous heirloom

A little trick that I have learnt over time with garlic … once it is removed from the bed, leave it out in the sun on the grass to ‘dry off’ or better still on the pavement. After a day or 2 hang it up ideally in a cool spot to finish drying. Make sure you check it every couple of days to ensure all is well!

Might be close planted … but lots of lovely salad vege

So once the bed was cleared, a mini broad fork, I then dug a couple of holes which were then filled with seaweed which we had gathered from the beach. Some soil from the manure bin (which is still full of worms) and or course a liberal dousing of Rok Solid. A good hose and then the straw mulch was popped back in situ again.

It is interesting as seasons change and plants get past their best. The parsley in one of the tubs has well and truly gone to seed. It needs to be removed to make room for more vege … a New Year task. I noticed today the start of powdery mildew on the zucchini … happens every year just a matter of when!
That’s Auckland for you!

Look what I found in the vege garden. Cute little green critter ..

PS Hope you all had a fab Christmas and New Year … thought I had posted this! Shame on me …